


Skeleton Crew

by readergirl101



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Diamond Days, Episode: s05e27 Together Alone, Homeworld is Horrible, could be shippy if you want
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-04 12:06:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17304305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/readergirl101/pseuds/readergirl101
Summary: “They didn’t shatter us during the war,” Skinny continued, “because they needed soldiers. And… we weren’t shattered after the war because Blue Diamond wanted to preserve Pink Diamonds memory or whatever…But Pink Diamond is alive. She was never shattered. Or she was shattered? And now she isn’t?”Carnelian shrugged. “She is currently alive.” Somehow.“So there’s no memory left to preserve anymore.”





	Skeleton Crew

“This sucks.”

Skinny looked back at where Carnelian had been lying on the floor of the monitoring room for several hours now. Skinny had to admit, it was weird to have the Zoo so empty with everyone else gone to Homeworld. A skeleton crew of off colors left behind. Skinny turned the chair around to face her. “You already said that.”

Carnelian propped herself up on her elbows. “Because it’s true. Everyone else got to go off to Homeworld and we’re-”

“Here.”

“Yeah.” Carnelian flopped back to the floor. “How do you think she survived?” Carnelian asked. “How did she do it? Why… why did she do it?”

“I don’t know,” Skinny said. They probably shouldn’t be asking. After all, it wasn’t their duty to wonder what the Diamonds did. But right now, they couldn’t help it. Besides, there wasn’t much else to do.

“Why would someone- why would  _ Pink Diamond  _ pretend she was shattered?”

“Maybe… I don’t know. Maybe she was.” Skinny offered. It wasn’t a good explanation. 

“But she’s back.”

“I know.”

It didn’t make sense. None of it did. It probably never would. No one seemed to know how Pink Diamond had survived. No one seemed to know what she had been doing, or where she had been. All anyone knew was that now she was back. Skinny turned back around, staring at the monitor screens. The humans were the same as always, unaware that anything at all had changed. Skinny pulled one of her legs up, resting her chin on her knees. It was too much to think about.

Carnelian sat up again. “Do you think they’ll still keep us here? All of us.”

Skinny shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Think they’ll start colonizing earth?” Carnelian suggested. “We could go back. It would be nice.”

“Maybe.”

Carnelian frowned. She climbed up the back of the chair, seating herself over Skinny;s head. “You’re worried about something.”

“It’s nothing,” Skinny shook her head. “It’s not… it’s stupid.”

“Can’t be stupider than this,” Carnelian said, gesturing  to the screens. The Humans had been interesting to watch at first, and they had been interesting after the Crystal Gems showed up with 8XM and had them break a couple humans out. But there was nothing strange happening to them anymore, and watching them had gone back to being extremely dull.

Skinny smiled a little, but it faded. She ran a hand through her hair. “We weren’t allowed to go to Homeworld.”

“We were not” Carnelian agreed.

“And we’re defective.” 

Carnelian snorted. “I definitely know that.”

“They didn’t shatter us during the war,” Skinny continued, “because they needed soldiers. And… we weren’t shattered after the war because Blue Diamond wanted to preserve Pink Diamonds memory or whatever…”

“Yeah?”

“But Pink Diamond is alive. She was never shattered. Or she was shattered? And now she isn’t?”

Carnelian shrugged. “She is currently alive.” Somehow.

“So there’s no memory left to preserve anymore.”

Carnelian opened her mouth then closed it. She slid down the chair, fitting easily next to Skinny. She shook her head.

“They… they’re not going to-” she looked up. “You don’t really think they would shatter us?”

“I don’t know,” Skinny admitted. “I was just… thinking.” She didn’t want it to be true. If it mattered that much, surely she and Carnelian would have just been shattered when the war had ended, never taken to the Zoo at all. But it wasn’t as though either of them could forget it. Sometimes she almost could, but then Holly would show up. Or she would get into a sparring match with someone and they would throw her across the room like a twig. Oh, she had learned how to use it to her advantage, but that didn’t mean it didn’t remind her that she was defective. Off Color. Whatever you wanted to call it.

“They won’t,” Carnelian said firmly. Her voice barely shook enough to reveal how badly the idea had rattled her. “Our Diamond wouldn’t…” she stopped. It was hard enough for anyone to know what a Diamond would do. It was even harder when she had supposedly been dead for five thousand years.

Skinny glanced at her. “I- I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

Unexpectedly, Carnelian hugged her, wrapping her arms around Skinnys waist.

“Is it weird,” Carnelian asked, “That sometimes I wish we could go back to the war?”

“Nah,” Skinny assured her, resting her hand on Carnelians head. “I think that sometimes.”

It wasn’t as though the war had been good. It had been awful, and terrifying, and deadly. And somehow there was still a nostalgia for it. For a time when they were doing something, when less than a thousand years passed between any kind of exciting event, for a time when they thought that maybe, just maybe, they could still win.

Supposedly they had won. If Pink Diamond was still alive, they must have.

But it didn’t feel like it.

“If Pink Diamond survived,” Carnelian said. “Do you think anyone else could have?”

“Crystal Gems did,” Skinny reminded her. It was hard to forget. 8XM arriving and having them break humans out of the Zoo was the most exciting thing to happen in all five thousand years.

“Besides them,” Carnelian said. She had liked meeting 8XM. She had liked meeting another Gem who was defective the same way she was. She had liked meeting any kind of new person at all. But part of her… It wasn’t 8XM’s fault. She had said she had come out after the war. But… why did Crystal Gems get to survive when so few of the Primes had? When almost none of the Beta’s had? When she was the only Carnelian to survive Earth? “Like… Nosy.”

Skinny shifted in her seat at the mention of her twin. “There… she was left behind,” Skinny said. “Even if she did… the Crystal Gems would have taken her out a long time ago.” Or maybe not. But somehow, thinking she was dead was easier. All of them knew that they didn’t really know. But even if she wasn’t, it wasn’t like they could see her again. Although maybe that wasn’t quite true anymore.

It didn’t matter. It was better to think she was dead. It was better than sitting and wondering, hoping for something that would never happen.

Skinny frowned, leaning forwards and tapping mindlessly at the console, even though there wasn’t anything that needed to be done, just switching the screens around. Carnelian let go of her.

“I- I shouldn’t have brought her up. It was stupid-”

“I shouldn’t have brought up that we could be shattered,” Skinny sat back and wrapped an arm around her. “And it’s not stupid. Well, it is stupid.” She smiled a little. “But I get it.”

Carnelian leaned her head against Skinny. “Maybe we could just… stay here.” She suggested. “Even if they send everyone someone where else.”

Skinny smiled. “That would suck.”

**Author's Note:**

> Nosy is my preferred Jasper nickname because it is terrible and I need Amethyst to learn it and then only ever call her that.


End file.
